With Grace
by SandsWinchester
Summary: Dean and Sam hear of a new hunter in town taking down monsters far too easily than it is humanly possible. What will happen when they finally run into her? What secrets are she keeping?
1. Eyes on Fire

_The hardest struggle in life is discovering its purpose. What were we meant to do? What was the ultimate end game? I mean, there had to be more to it all than to eat, sleep, and repeating that meaningless cycle till death claimed us, right?_

 _All my life, it felt as if all I've done was seeking the purpose to my existence. It seemed easier in the beginning, when I had less questions plaguing my mind but with time, the questions and doubts only became louder while the answers became too few._

 _I would never claim to be perfect. I was never the perfect child or the perfect sibling. I wasn't obedient as I should be, even though I tried, except I hid it better than most. Then later on, I tried to be the perfect soldier that my father wanted to be…but at times, it made little sense too._

 _Even then, I did try. I tried my best._

 _Hunting evil, and saving lives was the only thing that made sense in this confusing thing called life, and I did my best to muddle through…_

* * *

The warehouse was in the outskirts of the town and had been abandoned for the longest time. Until now, that is. Its new inhabitants looked ordinary enough that no one had connected the town's recent rise of strange deaths and increasing number of missing persons reports to them. Yet, for those who knew exactly what to look for, things were perfectly clear.

Vampires – a whole nest of them, fifteen in count.

She'd been tracking them for a couple of weeks, waiting for the perfect moment, to catch them unaware. She didn't need to, considering she was good enough to take them on in any state but it would cause less collateral damage – and would keep her under the radar – if done carefully.

The sun was just sinking, and the nest was only waking up when she walked in, seemingly unarmed. Against the glare left by the sun, she was in shadow, barely visible but she saw them clearly. The already awakened vamps growled, baring their fangs at her. When they lunged, the machete that suddenly appeared in her hand gleamed.

 _I'll seek you out, flay you alive…_

There was no fight, no struggle. She wasn't even breathing heavily when she sliced through sinew and bones of the neck of the only vampire left standing in the open area.

She looked around and counted the number of heads lying on the floor. Fourteen.

She sensed the last one charging at her before she even heard him. Her hands swiftly curled around the attacker and tightened menacingly.

 _One more word and you won't survive…_

Feral blood crazy eyes, quickly turned fearful. "Who the hell are you?" he croaked, astonished by the strength she showed for a mere hunter.

The smile she gave in return was anything but comforting. "It is not your concern anymore, is it?"

The vampire's eyes remained wide open in shock as his head rolled off with one clean cut of her blade.

News started spreading like wildfire for things like this had never been heard of before. Vampires and other monsters took extra caution. Fellow hunters, when they met in familiar establishments, spoke of this mysterious stranger in awe and wariness. No one they knew was good enough to take care of a whole nest of vampires all on their own – not even the legendary Winchesters. No one was _that_ good enough.

* * *

It was a few days later, that she found herself sitting quietly at a crowded bar. She wasn't a drinker – not at all, but she nursed a beer in her hand in an effort to blend in. When men, in their drunken rowdiness, attempted to flirt with her, she paid them no heed. She had a job to do, and it allowed for no distractions.

 _I'm not scared of your stolen power…_

Her eyes stalked her targets. They blended in well too, with their charming words and smooth moves. To an untrained eye, they seemed perfectly human.

 _I see right through you any hour…_

But she saw them for what they really were, through their human visage and the innocent bodies they possessed. Beyond the "meat suits" she saw the blackened evil souls in their ugly reality.

They exited in a group, all five of them. She laid some bills on the counter in front of her and followed suit.

She didn't bother to be quiet and stealthy. As she walked down the dark alleyway, she made sure they heard her come.

"What's a pretty little thing like you, doing out in the dark all by yourself?" a voice snarled behind her, and it brought a smile to her face. It brought her joy when they presented a challenge.

She turned to face the man in a suit. "Looking for evil sons of bitches like you," she quipped, grinning. Suit guy's eyes flashed black. And she felt the other four swarm in around her. The energy they gave told her that they were lower level creatures. This should be easy. Too easy.

 _I won't soothe your pain…_

In a swift move, the long silver hued blade sank into suit guy's throat.

The eyes of the blonde demon next to him widened. "Where did you get _that_ blade?" she asked, wariness in her eyes, yet readying herself to fight.

 _I won't ease your strain…_

Without bothering to reply, she stabbed the blonde right in the heart. The gasping and flickering light as her damned soul bid farewell to this world was such a distraction that one of the remaining demons took that opportunity to kick the blade off her very hands.

 _You'll be waiting in vain…_

"You're mine now, bitch," it yelled, charging at her.

Quietly, but effectively, she dodged the attacks, reaching for the blade. In the last moment, she decided to let it lay on the ground where it was.

 _I got nothing for you to gain…_

When she only defended instead of going on the attack, it pissed them off to no end. "Fight me, you bitch," one of them dared, but she only smiled.

She was waiting.

She _wanted_ to prolong the entertainment.

 _I'm taking it slow, feeding my flame…_

Their failed attempts at actually causing her any damage made it quite entertaining for her. Yet it was the fury in their eyes that fueled her adrenaline.

 _Shuffling the cards of your game…_

"Is that all you are capable of?" Taking a page off their smartass book, she taunted them back, making their eyes flash onyx in anger.

Then they decided to up their game, ganging up on her, two of them charging at her at the same time.

 _And just in time, in the right place…_

It was time. It was time to end this little game of cat and mouse. She checked her surroundings and found that no one else was around. In one swift move, she laid her palms on the heads of the demons charging at her from either side. With a flash of light, they fell to the ground, eyes burned right out of their skull.

 _Suddenly I will play my ace…_

The remaining demon backed off, shaking in fear as she stepped forward picking up her blade.

"Only one thing can kill like _that_ ," it stuttered, barely managing to get the words out. "What are you? What the hell are you?" it asked, even though deep down it knew the answer too well.

She smiled right into its fearful eyes, her blade pressed right against the pulse of its neck. "Tell me where your leader is," she commanded, and the demon didn't even think of resisting. She had the answers she sought in a matter of seconds.

"I told you everything you wanted to know," it said. "Will you let me go? I won't tell a soul," it went on pleading. She laughed in its face and it was the last thing heard as the demon flickered and dropped to the floor, its days of terrorizing human kind at an end.

* * *

The Impala's roar died down as Dean parked a block away from their desired destination. "You sure this is the place, right?" he asked, glancing over at his brother in the passenger seat.

Sam nodded, checking for his demon knife and readying himself for the fight ahead. "Maybe you should try calling Cas again. We could use his help on this one, Dean," he suggested.

"Well I called out to him once but he didn't exactly reply, now did he?" Dean replied, trying to keep the frustration he felt under wraps. "We are on our own on this."

"This lair is of a high ranking demon. A leader of an entire gang. You really think it's a good idea going in alone with no back up against something this powerful?" Sam asked, dubiously.

"We've beaten worse odds. We got this, Sammy," Dean said with a confidence he didn't truly feel.

As it turned out, five minutes into the fight, Dean and Sam both realized that they most definitely did _not_ "got this." They were outnumbered, and beaten bloody on the floor.

A black-eyed bitch had Sam pinned against the wall, and another was advancing on Dean with the demon knife too far away from his reach. _Cas, if you're listening,_ Dean prayed, knowing it was his last resort. _Now would be a damned good time to show._

The door of the warehouse banged open. The sound distracted the demons, making them turn to find a figure standing in the shadows. "Looks like I'm late to the party," the figure announced.

 _Eyes on fire, your spine is a blaze…_

 _Felling any foe with my gaze…_

A demon charged angrily at the intruder, and Dean watched in awe as it fell to the floor with one strike, as dead as a demon could be. He took advantage of the distracted demons and reached for the knife, killing the one closest to him.

He watched them advance upon her – yeah, that's right. It was one badass hunter chick, coming to their rescue – and he moved to help her. Except, it didn't seem like she needed anyone's help. Not really. He watched her in awe, and he felt he just might be falling in love. Her determination so focused on killing evil was so freaking sexy.

The battle was over soon enough, and ignoring the survivors inside, she moved to the exit. A man in a trench coat stood in her path. His blue eyes narrowed at her, then recognition flared in them. "I know you," he said quietly.

She smiled at him, glad to see a friendly face at last. "Hello, Castiel."

Wiping the blood off the corner of his mouth, Dean found his way to the exit followed by Sam. He glared at Cas. "A little too late to show up to help, don't you think, Cas?"

"Sorry. It takes a bit longer to drive," Cas replied, truly apologetic.

The intruder grinned at the Winchesters, even while she kept her guard up against them. "What he means to say is, it's not easy to be at your beck and call now that his wings are fried."

This earned another glare from the blue-eyed angel.

"Who the hell are you?" Dean asked.

"This is Ariel, an angel from my garrison," Castiel introduced her.

"I go by Y/N on earth now. Since the fall, I mean," she told them calmly.

Dean eyed her curiously, fiddling with the demon knife in his hand. "Ariel? Like the Little Mermaid?" he joked, earning a look from Sam. "What? You were thinking it! I'm just saying it."

She watched the younger Winchester whip out an angel blade and she grimaced inwardly. These humans should _not_ play with celestial weapons. It was becoming a nuisance. "We've met quite a few of you angels since the fall, and not all of them that likable," Sam said thinking of all he'd gone through because of Gadreel and the others. "The question is…are you a friend or a foe?" he asked defensively holding up the angel blade against her.

Y/N stepped right against the tip of the blade and pushed it down gently with her hand. "Friend, for now," she said smiling at them. "If I wanted you dead, you would be by now."

Dean looked at Cas, silently asking for his opinion on all of this.

Cas shrugged, letting his trench coat gently flutter. "You would be," he agreed, remembering the early days in heaven. "After all, she _is_ the one who trained me. If she wanted you dead, that's exactly what you'd be."

She clapped her hands, smiling gleefully. "What do you say we take this conversation somewhere else? Surrounded by a whole lot of dead demons ain't exactly the place for a reunion, don't you agree?"

And that was how Dean found himself at a bar, challenging a celestial being – a very hot celestial being, mind you – to drink him under the table, as Cas and Sammy laughed at him for his stupidity.

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	2. Adapt to Survive

Humanity was complex. There were so many emotions whirling around in one mortal being, with the fragility of their existence being a constant reminder every day. Yet, it was also simple or at least, they made it seem so. Y/N was starting to see what Castiel had found to be so precious and why their Father had entrusted the angels with the important task of protecting these fragile creatures.

She realized that she was getting far too close to the humans in her charge. Well, if truth be told, she had no charges considering that heaven was in complete disarray since the fall but she did have her chosen adopted charges – the Winchesters. When Castiel had taken off to assemble those angels who were willing to follow him with the pure intention of bringing order to the chaos in heaven, she had chosen to stay behind. She'd chosen to hang around with Sam and Dean after they'd invited her to do so.

She knew she could have done more – killed more monsters, and saved more humans – if she had been on her own, but she convinced herself that the Winchesters needed her more. She told herself that it was because she could offer them some protection, and definitely not because she found herself feeling joyful in the laughter a certain older Winchester brought out. It was definitely not because of the sense of belonging she felt when they checked up on her, even though they didn't need to. It wasn't at all because she actually, genuinely liked them or liked being around them. It was nothing of that kind, because those would be purely selfish reasons. Angels weren't selfish. They couldn't be, right?

They'd fallen into a rhythm. She'd started living with them in their _Men of Letters_ bunker, accompanying them on their hunts to offer them assistance when they required it, and in the night, when she couldn't sleep – because of course, angels had no need for sleep – she would look in on them, making sure their dreams remained pleasant. She realized she was starting to care for them. She wasn't supposed to. She realized she was getting too drawn to a certain shade of green. She knew she wasn't supposed to. She was starting to not care about a lot of things she was supposed to though.

Breakfast was always a lively affair. Sam and Dean would switch turns at making food – Sam's gloriously healthy, and Dean's decadently greasy. They would ask her to taste, and sometimes she wished she could. She wished to taste all the food the way they did but all she could taste was _molecules_ and that was _not_ a pleasant thing to taste.

Yet, every day, Dean would try to get her to eat. "You need food, Y/N. At least your vessel does," he insisted laying a greasy egg on a plate in front of her.

Well this was a new tactic on his part, bringing up her vessel. "But my vessel is dead. There's no one here but me," she pointed out.

Sam laid down his fork, staring at her, his curiosity awakened. "What do you mean?" he asked. "How is that possible?"

"Well, after the fall, I roamed around for days, looking for a vessel," she told them, and both Dean and Sam settled down at the table to listen to the story. "I didn't want to take over an innocent human's life, with or without consent. I came upon Y/N purely by chance. Yes, Y/N is my vessel's name, which I kept afterwards to blend in on earth. Anyway, she was in a drastic vehicle collision. As I hovered around her, I knew for certain that she wouldn't make it. When I asked for her permission to let me take over, she agreed. I tried to heal her but…it was too late. All that I could do was ease her pain as she passed."

"So you helped her go to heaven?" Sam asked.

Y/N shook her head. "It was not possible. With heaven on lock down, she was fated to roam around aimlessly." She felt laden with remorse for all the souls trapped in between two realms unable to find peace. "This is why we desperately need to fix the damage Metatron has done. Souls like hers deserve peace."

Dean laid a comforting hand on hers, and peered into her eyes. "We'll figure it out," he told her reassuringly.

* * *

Her adjusting to her new life with the humans did come with its awkward moments.

One time, after a hunt of her own, she'd returned to the bunker, caked with mud and dried up blood. Sam had wrinkled his nose at her, and said, "Dude! You seriously need a shower!"

Y/N realized he was right. She had walked straight to the shower room, with the sole intention of getting herself cleaned. She'd pulled back the shower curtain only to find it was already occupied.

"Y/N! What the hell!" Dean had yelled at her, trying to cover his crotch with his hands.

She stared back at him, and his widened eyes. Her eyes roamed over his sculpted body, dripping with water. "I need to shower," she simply told him.

"Well I'm not done yet!" Dean pointed out.

She could smell the faint pleasant scent of shampoo on him. He _seemed_ clean enough. "You are _almost_ done," she said and without even bothering to take her eyes off him, or to turn around, she started undressing.

Dean was incredulous. "What are you doing, Y/N?"

"Is it not obvious? I'm undressing to clean myself."

Dean watched her strip down to her underwear, and involuntarily, his eyes roamed all over the smooth skin. He knew he shouldn't – she was a goddamn angel – but he was still a man. He looked. He looked, and found that she was studying him as much as he was studying her.

Y/N had paused her own undressing to stare at the man before her. His skin glistened with water. His beautiful green eyes were looking at her with some sort of hunger, as if he wanted to devour her. Seeing him look at her that way, seemed to evoke the same feeling in her. All of a sudden, for reasons she couldn't begin to fathom, she felt like she had to be close to Dean as she could physically be. So she did the logical thing. She stepped closer, till their bodies almost touched.

Involuntarily, Dean flinched. "What the hell are you doing?" he asked, even though he was definitely starting to like what was happening.

"I'm not sure," Y/N confessed. "But I'm starting to feel things. For some strange reason, I have this sudden urge to _touch_ you." With those words, she tentatively laid a hand on his bicep, feeling the hard muscles beneath the warm skin. She felt weak at her knees and she didn't know why.

When she looked up into his eyes, and then down at his lips, Dean felt himself being pulled into a trance, but he physically forced himself to snap out of it. He quickly grabbed the towel to wrap around his waist, and put distance between them. "Listen," he said, trying his damnest to focus only on her face and not her beautiful body bared perfectly for his eyes. "What you're feeling, or your vessel is feeling, is called sexual attraction." Her lips parted in a gasp of surprise and realization. "And as much as I am attracted right back at you right now," he continued, trying to do the right thing. "I am _not_ going to take advantage of an angel. No freaking way."

She tilted her head to her side, in that same way Cas had a tendency to do so. "But what if I want you to…take advantage of me that is?"

Dean groaned, burying his face in his palm. "I can't be here," he said, making a move towards the door. He glanced back once at the exit. "Enjoy your shower, Y/N." The door closed behind him, leaving her confused and far too warm than she should be.

They didn't discuss the encounter again. Not until the next time.

Next time happened in reverse. It was early in the morning, when Dean walked into the shower room, still half asleep to hear another person in the shower. He assumed it was Sam after his routine morning run, and started shaving.

The curtain was flipped back, quite loudly, and Y/N exclaimed, "Good morning, Dean!"

He turned around to find that she was gloriously, and completely naked before him. All she was wearing was the hyped up grin on her lips. He almost nicked himself. "Y/N," he groaned. "We have got to stop meeting like this."

"You don't seem glad to see me," she said almost coyly, making him glance up at her. He tried to focus on her face once more even if his eyes and mind desperately wanted to stray. "Still…some _parts_ of you are sure glad as I can see," she added, a curious smile taking over her face.

Dean felt himself flushing red, and wondered how the hell she knew he was hard. He quickly glanced down to see if it showed and was relieved to find it didn't. He was starting to think of some kind of excuse when there was a loud bang on the door.

"Dean!" Sam yelled through. "It's Cas. He says he needs our help."

Y/N slowly stepped out and wrapped herself in a towel. "I suppose we got work to do."

Dean cleared his throat awkwardly. "Yeah," he muttered, and watched her saunter away, leaving him completely and utterly confused. What the hell?! Was she trying to _seduce_ him? Was an angel freaking trying to _seduce_ him? The only logical answer he could arrive at was yes, an angel _was_ definitely trying to seduce him.


End file.
